Field Trip Friday: Sleeping Heroes and Rockets

  Today we wrapped up our Sleeping Heroes Civil War veteran documenting for the summer at Lyndon. We were able to finish two of our county cemeteries this summer.  Bubby was at a sleepover, so it was just Mookie, Shorty and I with our buddies.  It was a beautiful morning for it.

Cheese!

We had to drag Bubby away from an air soft war, but we finally made it on our way to watch another of our buddies launch rockets not too far from our house.

blast off!

Next week a trip to the Kansas City Zoo to celebrate Mookie's 9th birthday!

Amish Country

  We think we have narrowed down Mookie's allergy to a preservative.  Sadly that's probably as specific as it's going to get for now as there's so many.  It seems to be helping though.  In an attempt to cut costs, we're buying bulk baking goods.  So today we made our bi-monthy trip to Amish country in NW Missouri for some shopping at one their bulk foods places.  It's quite a drive, but we pick up Grandma and she joins in the adventure with us!  Its cheap and fun:)
  Our trip takes us through Leavenworth, KS.  One of the kids' favorite places is the riverwalk area near the "blue bridge".  I had never been before, Ducky and Gigi have been the ones to take them, so it was a treat for me! Flat Darcy got to come with us too:)

the sculptures there were awesome!

Shorty's favorite!

The Landing is right next to the train tracks and just before we left one came through!  Shorty was thrilled!!

On to Amish country.  Shorty loves the "neighs" and Mookie loves everything about it. We left Bubby with Hubby & Ducky to get started on a new deck for us.

One of the things I love about NW Missouri is getting to catch a glimpse of the tobacco plants when they're in season.  They aren't as prevalent as in years past, but it's so cool to see something other than the norm.  For our Flat Darcy project we stopped and got up close to a field.  Mookie was thrilled to bring home an actual leaf:)

We can't wait to go back!

A Beautiful Birthday

  A couple of weeks ago we celebrated my mother-in-law's birthday.  Her only request was that we throw her an old fashioned weenie roast so the grandkids would have that experience.  The Lord blessed us with excellent weather and it was an amazing evening!
   We had typical picnic fare - hot dogs, roasted corn, and ooooh Grandma's yummy mac n' cheese!

And of course, S'mores!

How many did the kids eat, I'm sure we don't want to know;)

Our boys were thrilled beyond measure at the WWII plane flyover.  There was an airshow at a nearby airstrip and we got to benefit!

Most of my evening was spent like this...

He had a blast chasing after planes, and older cousins.

There's nothing quite like spending some wonderful time with the family!

Guess Who? #2

Some more of my unknowns...

Barrington, IL

Chicago, IL

Yates Center, KS

Pretty sure the woman on the right is my gg-grandma Emilie (Krien) Schaede.

This one is identified as Bill Martins, Mark & Floyd Runnar, and John Mullins.  I know how John fits into my family, and the others are supposed to be related, but I don't know how!

This woman is my gg-grandma' Susan (Camp) Murray's sister.  The age of the photo would make it either Tamson (Camp) Evans, or Caroline (Camp) Shriver.

This one was on the page with the Camp pictures.

This one was on the Camp picture page too.  Isn't she cute?

My Little Genius

  Today took a while to get through.  Tomorrow we have a road trip that is going to mess with our schedule for the week, so I was encouraging the kids to get more done so they didn't have to work on it later and then they moved as if in molasses.  Isn't that the way? :)
  One of Mookie's lessons this week is a reluctant reader's writing guide on poetry that we're trying out for the Crafty Classroom.  Mookie HATES writing!  She'd rather be crafting.  So she put off the writing her couplet until the very end along with a couple of other minor subjects.  
  At the end of the school day, she presented me with this...

"But I'm an explorer, those maps I will use.  For ambling and rambling, wherever I choose".

Heavenly days.  Boy, it was worth all the pulling of teeth to get a gem like that.  My child is a genius!  She's the next Emily Dickinson!  Then pulling me out of my daydream, I hear her say something to the affect of "so you like my handwriting assignment?".  Huh?  Um, yes, your handwriting is beautiful.  Seems we still have some poetry to work on :)

Guess Who?

Everyone has those pictures, those unmarked ones that taunt you with their hidden identities.  Don't give up hope on them, at every chance you get, send them out to new cousins you find and see if they find a familiar face.  That worked for me once, I sent xerox copies of my unknowns to a cousin and she found one that was an exact match to one in her collection - he was unmarked there too, but we narrowed down the family he belonged to.  So, to whomever may read this blog, I'm going to put my unknowns into cyberspace in hopes of finding out who they are:)  These are from my Dad's side of the family (Murray, Schaede, Krien lines).

Westphalia, KS

Neosho Falls, KS

Neosho Falls, KS

Neosho Falls, KS

Yates Center, KS

Yates Center, KS

Yates Center, KS

Yates Center, KS

Yates Center, KS

Yates Center, KS

Yates Center, KS

Field Trip Friday: Atchison

  This week we received a "guest" in the mail. Flat Darcy (a flat traveller from our Homeschool Swapping Adventures group) came to stay with us for the month.  She is from the great state of Texas.  So, since the kids & I were headed up north again this week, we decided to see a piece of famous Kansan history - Amelia Earhart's birthplace.
  My mom's family is from Atchison area.  My gggg-grandpa John McNemee settled in Atchison in 1855 when there were only 10 log cabins in town.  Atchison was a primary entry point to Kansas during territorial days and has a ton of history!  Our first stop was to eat lunch down by the Missouri River.  The city has really made this area a nice place for recreation now.  Not far from where we pulled off was an interpretive area for the Lewis & Clark Trail.

Mookie & Darcy on the Missouri River near the Lewis & Clark trail

They also had a great veterans memorial & had a piece of the section of the aft deckhouse superstructure of the battleship U.S.S. Arizona.  This thrilled Bubby to no end!  It even had a place you could actually touch it.

Next up was the birthplace of Amelia Earhart.  I was wary of attempting this because Shorty DID NOT SLEEP on the way to Atchison & so we were facing the early afternoon in a small museum with a toddler in need of a nap:/  I was so glad we followed through with our plans though.  What a beautiful house!

the kids and Darcy in front of Amelia's birthplace

I told Hubby when we got home that if someone told me I had to pack up and move to that house without prior notice I would!  It sits on the bluff overlooking the river and is beautifully restored.  Amelia lived here for approx. 10 years.  It was her grandparents' house & her father traveled alot with his job.  The two oldest kids took the self guided tour paper & walked themselves through while I chased the toddler around.  He didn't really try to get into anything, he just had to keep moving.  Mookie especially loved the house. She loved all the pretty things in it:)

Mookie's favorite room (she loved the window seats!)

I think I should have ran him up and down the back porch steps a few more times!

On the way out, I asked them if they could stand the hour and a half ride home while wet.  They thought they could, so we took an unplanned trip to the free spray park we saw on the way up to the Earhart house.  This turned out to be the highlight of the trip, you can't go wrong with kids & water!

Shorty hates being sprayed with water, but he warmed up to the idea and had a blast! 
We came home totally tired and happy:)